Embedded electronic charge technology is utilized in a variety of different types of MEMS devices and applications, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 6,597,560; 6,638,627; 6,688,179; 6,717,488; 6,750,590; and 6,773,488 and in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos.: 2002/0131228; 2002/0182091; 2003/0079543; 2003/0201784; and 2004/0023236 by way of example. Embedded electronic charge technology is also extendable to a variety of applications in the macroscopic realm, such as heel strike power generation or for electrical generation from local environmental sources, such as the wind or waves.
These devices with embedded electronic charge use charge injection to trap charge at an interface of dissimilar insulators. Typically, the charge injection techniques used to embed the charge are high field injection or ballistic injection. High field injection requires a conducting material be placed on each side of the material into which charge is to be injected. The conducting materials on each side must be in substantial alignment with each other and a high voltage is applied across the conducting materials. Ballistic injection requires a ballistic charge source, such as an electron gun, a vacuum chamber, and a device to control energy, dose, and spatial coordinates of the ballistic charge source.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to inject electronic charge over an arbitrarily large surface and likewise to do so as a single step. If high field injection with conducting electrodes is used, a single defect, such as a short, in the material being injected will preclude charge injection. If ballistic injection is used, a very large and hence expensive vacuum chamber is required.